Francis Alphonse Capell (May 8, 1907 – October 18, 1980), was a
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
,
anticommunist
Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when the United States and the ...
writer, and essayist. He was the publisher of the newsletter ''Herald of Freedom'' in
Zarephath, New Jersey
Zarephath (, ) is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) and located in Franklin Township, in Somerset County, New Jersey, United States, about north of Princeton. He was one of the first writers to speculate on the
Robert F. Kennedy
Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925June 6, 1968), also known by his initials RFK and by the nickname Bobby, was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 64th United States Attorney General from January 1961 to September 1964, ...
and
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe (; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; 1 June 1926 4 August 1962) was an American actress. Famous for playing comedic " blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s, as wel ...
trysts.
Robert F. Kennedy
Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925June 6, 1968), also known by his initials RFK and by the nickname Bobby, was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 64th United States Attorney General from January 1961 to September 1964, ...
, then the
Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general.
In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
to Anthony Capelli and Caroline Louisa Brantigam. He married in 1935 and had one daughter. He remarried in 1948 to Adele Irene Neighbor and they raised seven sons. He founded The Capell Employment Agency, which had five offices in New York City. In 1943, while an investigator for the
War Production Board
The War Production Board (WPB) was an agency of the United States government that supervised war production during World War II. President Franklin D. Roosevelt established it in January 1942, with Executive Order 9024. The WPB replaced the Sup ...
, Capell was fined $2,000 for "agreeing to take a $1,000 gratuity from a clothing manufacturer." In 1964, when
Thomas Kuchel
Thomas Henry Kuchel ( ; August 15, 1910 – November 21, 1994)
was an American politician. A moderate Republican, he served as a US Senator from California from 1953 to 1969 and was the minority whip in the Senate, where he was the co-manage ...
was campaigning against
Barry Goldwater
Barry Morris Goldwater (January 2, 1909 – May 29, 1998) was an American politician and United States Air Force officer who was a five-term U.S. Senator from Arizona (1953–1965, 1969–1987) and the Republican Party nominee for presiden ...
, there circulated a "vicious document" that purported to be an affidavit signed by a
Los Angeles Police Department
The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), officially known as the City of Los Angeles Police Department, is the municipal police department of Los Angeles, California. With 9,974 police officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the third-large ...
officer saying that in 1949 he had arrested Kuchel. The document said the arrest was for drunkenness while Kuchel had been in the midst of a sex act. Capell was indicted for the libel, along with Norman H. Krause, a bar owner and ex-Los Angeles policeman, who in 1950 ''did'' arrest two people who worked in Kuchel's office for drunkenness — Jack Clemmons, a Los Angeles police sergeant until his resignation two weeks before his arrest; and John F. Fergus, a public relations man for
Eversharp
Eversharp is an American brand of writing implements founded by Charles Rood Keeran in 1913 and marketed by Keeran & Co., based in Chicago. Keeran commercialised ''Eversharp'' mechanical pencils (manufactured by two companies, Heath and Wahl), the ...
, Inc., who was charged in 1947 with possession of a concealed weapon and given a suspended sentence.
A lifelong heavy smoker, Capell died from
lung cancer
Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissue (biology), tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from tran ...
on October 18, 1980 in
New Brunswick, New Jersey
New Brunswick is a city (New Jersey), city in and the county seat, seat of government of Middlesex County, New Jersey, Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Basking Ridge, New Jersey
Basking Ridge is an unincorporated community located within Bernards Township in the Somerset Hills region of Somerset County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the population for the ZIP Code Tabulation Area (ZCTA) 07920 wa ...
.Bill Capell writes in December 2009: "Born Francis Alphonse Capelli, the "chief" as he was known, always went by the name Frank, and was the first to use the name Capell. He changed his name when he enlisted in the U.S. Navy at the age of 13 to conceal his Italian heritage. Although he didn't serve in the armed forces during World War II, he was an inspector for War Production Board and had a life long interest in all things military. He married very young in 1935 and had one daughter by that marriage. He remarried in 1948 and raised 7 sons. He founded The Capell Employment Agency which grew to have 5 offices across New York City. Best known to the world for his hard line anti-communist writing, he also authored books such as "The Strange Death of Marilyn Monroe". While living in Staten Island, he was active in the Kiwanis Club and the Big Brothers of America. After moving to Zarephath NJ in 1963, he became active in the Order of Saint John and published his own conservative newsletter called "The Herald of Freedom". As a controversial figure on the political scene, he was a highly sought after speaker and often appeared on radio and TV shows most notably in 1966 on the Alan Burke Show. The chief had both of his arms covered with tattoos while in the Navy and considered them an embarrassment in his later years. A lifelong heavy cigarette smoker, he died at the age of 73 from lung cancer. He is buried in the family plot in Somerset Hills Cemetery in Basking Ridge NJ." and "Just as a side note, his older brother Tony Chapelle was a famous photographer and photo journalist who was married to Dickie Chapelle who wrote about the Vietnam War for National Geographic in 1962 and was with the Marines on Iwo Jima during WW2."
Selected publications
Books
* ''The Threat from Within: The Truth about the Conspiracy to Destroy America'' (1963). Zarephath, New Jersey: Herald of Freedom. 51 pages.
:: "The American people have the finest country In the world. This has been made possible only because of God's blessing."
* ''Treason is the Reason'' (1965). Zarephath, New Jersey: Herald of Freedom. 168 pages.
* ''The Strange Case of Jacob Javits'' (1966). Zarephath, New Jersey: Herald of Freedom. 71 pages.
* ''LSD — Weapon of Subversion'' (1968). Zarephath, New Jersey: Herald of Freedom.
* ''The Untouchables'' (1968). Zarephath, New Jersey: Herald of Freedom.
* ''The Untouchables, Part 2'' (1969). Zarephath, New Jersey: Herald of Freedom.
''The Strange Death of Marilyn Monroe'' (1969). Zarephath, New Jersey: Herald of Freedom. 79 pages.
:: Argues that Monroe was killed by Communists. The original exposé of her trysts with
Robert F. Kennedy
Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925June 6, 1968), also known by his initials RFK and by the nickname Bobby, was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 64th United States Attorney General from January 1961 to September 1964, ...
.
* ''The Decline of Catholicism'' (1972). Zarephath, New Jersey: Herald of Freedom.
''Henry Kissinger: Soviet Agent'' (1974). Zarephath, New Jersey: Herald of Freedom. 120 pages.
Pamphlets
*''Atheism'' (1966). St. Louis:
Christian Nationalist Crusade
Christian Nationalist Crusade was an American antisemitic organization which operated from St. Louis, Missouri. Its founder was Gerald L. K. Smith. It sold and distributed, ''inter alia'', '' The International Jew'', and subscribed to the antise ...
.
* ''Massacre Propaganda'' (1970). St. Louis:
Christian Nationalist Crusade
Christian Nationalist Crusade was an American antisemitic organization which operated from St. Louis, Missouri. Its founder was Gerald L. K. Smith. It sold and distributed, ''inter alia'', '' The International Jew'', and subscribed to the antise ...
Christian Nationalist Crusade
Christian Nationalist Crusade was an American antisemitic organization which operated from St. Louis, Missouri. Its founder was Gerald L. K. Smith. It sold and distributed, ''inter alia'', '' The International Jew'', and subscribed to the antise ...
. 7 pages.
Newsletters
*''Herald of Freedom'' (biweekly).
:: Sold for $10/year for the standard edition, and $6/year for the religious edition, in 1970.Morris Kominsky ''The Hoaxers: Plain Liars, Fancy Liars, and Damned Liars''. Boston: Braden Press. 1970. "Frank A. Capell, alias Francis A. Capelle, has made a career of Red-Baiting forquite a number of years. He edits and publishes a bi-weekly newsletter."
Google Books
Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...